Dorothy Loudon

Born: 1925-09-17

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dorothy Loudon (September 17, 1925 – November 15, 2003) was an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1977 for her performance as Miss Hannigan in Annie. Loudon was also nominated for Tony Awards for her lead performances in the musicals The Fig Leaves Are Falling and Ballroom, as well as a Golden Globe award for her appearances on The Garry Moore Show. Loudon was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1925 (she later shaved eight years off her age) and raised in Claremont, New Hampshire and Indianapolis, Indiana. She attended Syracuse University on a drama scholarship but did not graduate, and moved to New York City to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began singing in night clubs, mingling song with ad-libbed comedy patter, and was featured on television on The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. Loudon made her stage debut in 1962 in The World of Jules Feiffer, a play with incidental music by Stephen Sondheim, under the direction of Mike Nichols. That same year she made her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go but Up, which ran only two weeks but earned her good reviews and the Theatre World Award. In 1969, The Fig Leaves Are Falling ran for only four performances, although it won her the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical. Loudon was chosen as the replacement for Carol Burnett when Burnett left The Garry Moore Show in 1962. Although that collaboration was not altogether successful, the excellent reviews she received the same year for her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go but Up proved prophetic. Coincidentally, the two roles Loudon later played so successfully on Broadway stage —Miss Hannigan and Dotty Otley — were both played by Burnett onscreen. She also was a frequent guest star on many New York based comedy and game shows. In 1979, Loudon starred in the television series Dorothy, in which she portrayed a former showgirl teaching music and drama at a boarding school for girls. It lasted only one season. She appeared in only two films, playing an agent in the film Garbo Talks (1984) and a Southern eccentric in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997).


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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

as Serena Dawes
Released: 1997-11-21

A visiting city reporter's assignment suddenly revolves around the murder trial of a local...

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Night of 100 Stars

as Self
Released: 1982-03-08

The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took...

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Broadway's Lost Treasures

as Miss Hannigan (segment "Annie")
Released: 2003-08-10

The golden age of the annual Tony Awards ceremony lasted from 1967 to 1986 — the period during...

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Garbo Talks

as Sonya Apollinar
Released: 1984-10-12

When New York accountant Gilbert Rolfe finds out his mother has a brain tumor, he is devastated....

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Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall

as Self
Released: 1992-06-10

This program features the music of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim in a 1992 performance at...

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My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies

as Self - Performer
Released: 1999-12-01

On Sept. 28, 1998, some of the greatest divas in musical theater -- including Marin Mazzie, Judy...

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Katharine Hepburn: On Her Own Terms

as Self
Released: 1996-10-04

Four-time Oscar-winner Katharine Hepburn called herself a "personality" as well as an actress,...

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The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

as Self
First aired: 1962-10-01

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight...

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Great Performances

as Self
First aired: 1971-01-28

The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse...

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The Mike Douglas Show

as Self - Co-Host
First aired: 1961-12-11

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that...

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The Mike Douglas Show

as Self
First aired: 1961-12-11

The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that...

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Magnum, P.I.

as uncredited
First aired: 1980-12-11

A private investigator who works when he wants, lives in a beachfront estate in Hawaii, drives a...

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Murder, She Wrote

as Pamela Bates
First aired: 1984-09-30

An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life...

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The Dinah Shore Chevy Show

as Self
First aired: 1956-10-05

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show is an American variety series hosted by Dinah Shore, and broadcast on...

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The Ed Sullivan Show

as Self
First aired: 1948-06-20

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June...

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